Shurtleff wants feds to bolster efforts to stop underage drinking

SALT LAKE CITY — The Federal Trade Commission needs to do more to regulate young people’s exposure to alcohol advertising, says Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and and attorneys general from 23 other states.

In a letter submitted to the FTC Tuesday, the attorneys general proposed a three-step plan to keep alcohol advertising away from teens.

The proposal could serve as a guideline for the FTC as it collects information from advertisers about how they advertise, sell and market alcohol. It includes a request that data collection be ongoing and not intermittent, that advertising be prohibited when more than 15 percent of the audience are between the ages of 12 and 20, and that social media advertising data also be collected.

The former FTC proposal only prohibited alcohol advertising when 30 percent or more of a given audience was not of legal drinking age, a release states.